Numerous closed-deck runabout boats are commercially available. As is known such boats typically include a hull having a passenger seating area or cockpit and a forward or front deck that is “closed.” The front deck may include a hatch to provide access to items stored below the front deck. Persons wishing to sit at the front of such closed-deck boats are therefore resigned to sitting or reclining on the front deck. This may present a safety hazard, depending upon water conditions, weather, etc. The patent literature includes some disclosures of boats having openable areas in the front deck to enable passengers to be seated therein. For example, in U.S. Letters Pat. No. 4,763,598 (Spencer) there is disclosed a boat having multiple panels attached to each other and to the deck of the boat. The panels are movable to more than one position and have different uses in each position. When lowered into a cabin area they provide a large opening in the deck and provide an additional useful function such as the formation of seats or of ladder steps. When raised they form a part of the deck and close the opening in the deck to provide weather protection and security for the cabin.
In U.S. Letters Pat. No. 6,497,192 (Fecht) there is disclosed a boat having a sunken seating area in the bow of the boat. This seating area is hidden by a panel. The panel is movable to expose and allow access to the bow seating area.
In U.S. Letters Pat. No. 6,945,190 (Frandsen) there is disclosed a boat having a seat back system that includes a pair of seat benches for mounting to the floor of an open bow section of the boat. The seats face each other along an axis parallel to the keel of the boat. Each seat back is individually mounted to pivot from a vertical, seat back attitude, to a horizontal attitude covering over the open bow section. The boat of this patent includes an arrangement for pivoting the seat backs that can be hydraulic, pneumatic or mechanical. To that end, each makes use of an extending piston between the boat floor and at a location along a brace that is secured to a seat back side, extending at a right angle therefrom, with piston extension to provide seat back travel, providing a load bearing deck.
While the boats of the aforementioned patents may be generally suitable for their intended purposes, they nevertheless leave much to be desired from various standpoints, such as functionality, ease of use and operation and aesthetics. The boat of the subject invention addresses those needs.